New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin took time out from his Jay Fund golf tournament Monday morning to chat with 'Boomer & Carton' on WFAN. He covered much of the same territory that he went over last week during a spot with ESPN, but it was still interesting.
One area Coughlin did talk about more in depth was the draft, and the impact of the NFL Lockout on the ability to get rookies ready to play. Those of you who believe Coughlin is an out of touch dinosaur from another era who refuses to play rookies simply on the grounds that they are rookies will want to pay attention.
First, let's look at Coughlin's take on how the Giants ended up with cornerback Prince Amukamara with the 19th selection of the first round and Marvin Austin with the 52nd overall selection in the second.
"We were excited because two players of very high quality were on the board for us to pick. The only question going in was once the quarterbacks started to go how would they affect the board?" Coughlin said. "If people started taking some of them high it would push some of these players that were rated and evaluated and had such a high ranking down a little bit, and that's basically what happened and so we were able to draft Prince in our spot and move on to get what we thought was two players that were in the top 15 of the draft in the first two rounds."
Coughlin is, rightly, concerned about the lockout affecting a team's ability to prepare rookies to play right away. Take note of the fact that he does address the need for rookies to contribute quickly.
"Obviously if we don't get some early work with our rookies you're going to have to taper things down a little bit because these guys have not had it," Coughlin said.
"You're going to have to realize when in fact this does get settled and they all come together you've not had any opportunity to work with your rookies at all and your conditioning level is another factor. How rapidly do you install? These kids have got to play, they've got to help you now. This is a different game, a different era with regard to that."
The Giants coach did sound enthused by what Amukamara could bring to the Giants.
"Very bright, very sharp but yet he's got that little bit of naive to him, which is a good thing. He's very coachable, he is a physical player, he's well slapped together. They did bring him on what we call the ‘Cowboy' a lot. So he's been brought in blitz, he's a cover [corner], he plays probably best in the press alignment, he's very confident of his ability," Coughlin said.
"A very talented young guy that we're excited to have."
Coughlin was asked about not getting playbooks to rookies when they were allowed to visit the New Meadowlands immediately after the draft.
"What's the young man going to get out of it when he doesn't understand," Coughlin said. "The language is going to strap him right there. He's not going to be able to get too far."
Coughlin, as are coaches around the league, is concerned about the ability to fully prepare a team without the offseason work.
"I know the skeptics out there would say is that really all that important. Well, it is. The concern has to be for the injury cycle, for players being in great shape. Hopefully we will get some kind of resolve and have a little bit of time with our players before training camp," Coughlin said. "Under normal circumstances if you've had a spring you can get a team to play in three weeks. But without having seen a team, without having worked with them what's the level of our team?
The podcast of the full interview is below.